The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-10-18
FORBIDDEN HONEY"
Sermon Delivered by DR.. Tall
mage at Brooklyn Tabernacle.
81 DID BUT TASTE A LITTLE HONEY

hundred ond eighty-one thousand three hun
dred and sixteen dollars and twenty-four cents
nave been paid cash down in this church for re-
ligious uses and Christian work during the
nineteen years of my ministry" said the Rev.
L. Dewitt Talmage, D. D., in answer to the
misrepresentation that have been going
through some of the religious papers depreci-
ating the work of the Brooklyn tabernacle.
After giving out the hymn:
"Our God our help in ages past
Our hope for years to come"
DIR. Talmage preached q sermon, the subject
of which was Forbidden Honey" the text
being L Samuel xiv, V. 43: az did but taste a
little honey with the end of the rod that was
in my hand, and, 10, must die" DR.. Tai
mage said:
The honey bee is a most ingenious architect
a Christopher Wren among insects, "a geometer
drawing hexagons and pentagons afreebotter,
robbing the fields of pollen and aroma, a Won
drous creature of God whose biography,
written by Hubera and Swammerdam is an en-
chantmenr for any lover of nature. Virgil
celebrated the bee in his fable of Aristaeus,
and Moses, and Samuel, and David, and Solo
mon, and jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and St.
John used the delicaces of bee manufacture
as Bible symbol. A miracle of formation is
the bee; five eyes, two tongues, the outer
having sheath Of protection hairs ON all sides
of its tiny body to brush up the
particles of flowers, its fight so
straight that all the world
knows of the bee-line. Tho honey comb is a
palace such as no one but God could plan, and
the honey-bee construct its cells sometimes a
dornltory, and sometimes a store-house and
sometimes cemetery. These winged toilers
first make eight strips of wax, and by their an
teenae, which are to them hammer, and chisel,
and square, and plumb-line, and fashion them
Tor use Two and two, these workers shape
the wall. Ii an accident happen they put up
buttresSes er extra beams to remedy the dam
age. When about the year 1776, an insect be-
fore unknown, i'll the night time attacked the
beehives all over Europe, and the men who
owned them were in vain trying to plan some
thing to keep out the invader that was the ter
ror OF the 1bee-hiveS of the continent, it was
found that everywhere the bees had arranged
Tor their own protection, and built before their
honeycombs an especial wall of wax with port
hole through which the bees might go to and
1ro' put not large enough to admit the winged
combatant called the Sphinx Atropos
DO you know that the sWarming of the bees
is diyinely directed? The mother bee starts
for new home, and because of this the other
bees OF the hive get into an excitement which
raises the heat Of the hive some four DEGREES
and they must die unless they leave their
heated apartments, and they follow the mother
bee and alight on the branch of tree, and
cling to each other and hold on until p COM
mitteo OF two on three have explored the re-
not far off from stream of water, and they
here set up q new colony, and ply their arO-
matte industries, and give themselves to the
manufacture of the saccharine edible
But who can tell the chemistry of that NIX
turc of sweetness, part of it the very life
oil the bee and part OF it the life of the fields?
Plenty OF this luscious product was hanging
in the woods OF Bethaven during the time of
saul and Jonathan Their army was in pur-
suit OF an enemy that by Gods command must
be eNterninated The soldiery were positive
~ forbidden to stop to eat anything until the
work was done. If they disobeyed they were
accused. Coming through the woods they
found place WherG the bees had been busy,
great honey mandatory. Honey gathered in
the hollow of the trees until it had
oVertioWed upon the ground in great
profuSion of sweetness. All the army
ObeyGd orders and touched it not save Jona-
than, and he not knowing the military order
about abstinence, dipped the end of a stick he
had in his hand into the candied liquid and as
yellow, and brown aud tempting it gloWed on
the end Of the stick, he put 1t to his mouth and
ate the honey. Judgment fell upon him, and
but for special intervention, he would have
been slain. In my text, Jonathan announces
his awful mistake: 81 did but taste little
honey with the end of the rod that was in my
hand, and, 10, l must die" Alas, what multi
tude Of people in all ages have been damaged
by forbidden honey, by which | mean tempta-
ton, delicious and attractive, but damaging
and destructive.
this category. Where one good, honest, health
full book is read now, there are one hundred
made up of rhetorical trash consumed with
ayidty. When the boy on the cars comes
through with pile of publications, look
over the titles and notice that nine out of ten
of the books are depicting and injurious. All
the way from New York to Chicago or New
Orleans notice that Objectionable books domi-
nate. Taste for pure literature is poisoned
by this scum of the publishing house. Every
gNl. NEh fRh civ VIM
which GLAMOUR is thrown over dissipation, or
which leaves you at its last line with less re-
spect for the marriage institution and less alb
horrence Tor the paramour, IS depression of
your own moral character. The book bindery
may be attractive, and the plot dramatic, and
startling and the style of writing sweet as the
honey that Jonathan dipped up with his rod,
but your best interests forbid it, your moral
safety fOrbidS it, your God forbids it and one
taste Of il may lead to such bad results that
you may have to say at the close of the eXper-
iment or at the close of a misimproved life
time: Il did but taste a little honey with the
rod that was. in my hand, and, 10, l must de-
Corrupt literature is doing more today for
the disruption of domestic life than any other
cause. ElOpements, marital intrigues, sly cor
reSpOndence, fictitious names given at postoffice
windows ClandeStine meetings i'll parks, and
at ferry gates, and in hotel parlorS, and coniu-
gal periurieS are among the damnable results
When woman, young or old, gets her head
thoroughly stuffed with modern novels she is
in appalling peril. But some one will say:
The heroes are so adroitly knayish, and the
persons so bewitchingly untrue, and the turn
of the story SO exquisite, and all the characters
so enrapturing L cannot quit them" My
brother, my sister, you find styles of litera-
ture just rs charming that will elevate and
purify, and cnoble. and Christianize while they
please. The devil does not own all the honey
There is wealth of good books coming forth
from our publishing houses that leaves no eX-
CuSe for the choice Of that which is debauchng
to the body, mind and soul. Go to some intel
igent men or women, and ask for q list of
books that will be strengthening to your men,
tai and moral condition Life is SO short and
your time for improvement SO abbreviated that
you cannot afford TO fill up with husks and
cinderS and debris. In the interstices of bust
ness that young man is reading that which will
prepare him to be n merchant prince, and that
young woman is filling her mind with an intel
hgence that will yet either make her the chief
attraction Of good mans home or give her
an independence Of character that will qualify
her to build her own home and main
tain it in happiness that requires no
augmentation from any of cur rough
or sex. That young man or young
woman can by the right literary and moral i'm
provement of the spare ten minutes here or
there in every day, rise head and shoulders in
prosperity, ana character, and influence above
fln Ntrla, / 4I,,t